- 41 gurrounding tissue (roughly 10 rem/yr).
—-
¢
Weanons Test Fallout
*-"
Another source of human contamination that is suggested
as being pertinent to this problem is the plutonium in the
fallout from nuclear weapon tests.
The plutonium from
weapon tests is incorporated in or deposited on particles
that contain other materials and,
like that for the Manhattan
workers, the specific activity in these particles is much
“es
smaller than that in hot particles.
VII
Exposure’ Standards for Hot Particles
Thus the existing biological evidence strongly suggests
that an insoluble particle of Pu-239 deposited in deep
respiratory tissue represents a risk of cancer induction
between 1/1090 and 1/10 ,000.
Prudent public health practices
should assess the risk associated with environmental plu~__ -
tonium and establish exposure guidelines on the basis of
_these probabilities.
The existing standards fer uniform radiation exposure
of the whole body or lung can be used as the basis for
‘establishing particle exposure standards by equatiny the
risk of cancer induction between the two types of exposure
(uniform vs. grossly non-uniform).
assessment
of
tre
risk
The most recent
associated with
uniform irracication
of